Today's workforce is rapidly changing. The impact of the change is magnified by virtue of simultaneous technological and generational shifts. Rising to meet this challenge is Terri McClements, a PwC partner since 1997, who was recently named as the firm's U.S. Human Capital Leader. McClements says the firm's dedication to treating employees as unique individuals and helping them blaze a trail to their own goals and aspirations, both at work and at home, is of critical importance to maintaining the strong culture at PwC.
Consulting: What's been keeping you busy in this role?
McClements: I've been taking the opportunity to really set priorities out through fiscal 2017 in terms of what we think the firm strategy is but more importantly related to the human capital strategy and what's important to our people, as well as spending time to get to know my team. I'm a people person at heart, which is one of the reasons I'm really excited to be in the role for PwC in terms of leading the human capital organization and trying to advance the ball on some of the significant strategic priorities we have related to the people agenda for PwC, because our business is our people.
Consulting: Can you speak to how a strong investment in people translates to success elsewhere within PwC?
McClements: Given that we are a professional services firm, our foundation and our business is our people. We really need to put our people first in everything we do. As you look at individuals, we have 36,000 or so in the U.S., all of those people have aspirations that are unique, relating to the things going on in their lives and their goals. I've been spending a lot of time really understanding how we can engage our people in a broader way in terms of their own personal development. We take the pulse of our people as many firms do, really trying to get to the personal, individual level. Really trying to talk to our team, partner group and people group about how important it is to understand each person's individual goals and aspirations, and making the right connections to help someone achieve something they're looking forward to.
Consulting: Does that play into the recruiting function?
McClements: Absolutely. We have a vision of what we want to be in Fiscal 2017, we'll be looking at what kind of talent and skill sets we need in terms of where our future business is heading. The attributes we look for today in terms of campus recruits and experienced hires may not be the same attributes we look at from five years out and beyond. Some of the things we look to have in terms of very critical attributes include the ability to think globally and act globally, be culturally dexterous, being a broad thinker, having a mobile mindset—doesn't mean one needs to live out of the country, but thinking about how you accumulate different experiences that will build someone's resume. If you look at the Millennial generation, they want experiences and don't necessarily want to do the same thing for the rest of their life. Creating the opportunities for experiences for people becomes critically important for us, as well.
Consulting: What are some external factors that will impact the business going forward?
McClements: The continued economic challenges, from a global perspective, is one of the top drivers. Shifting demographics in the U.S., certainly, new family structures are important from a human capital perspective: how do we help our people balance work and life with the new structures that are here to stay? Enabling technologies is certainly an important factor. We'll be looking to roll out technologies to help our people do their work in a better way. Focusing less on face time, and focusing on quality of work versus quantity. Also generational forces—in a year's plus time we'll be making our first Millennial partner. We think about all the different generations we have working together and we have to help all our people understand what's important to the various generations.
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